The Vuelta a Espana has a reputation as a revenge race for riders that have had little success in the first part of the season. This year some of the world’s biggest stars have been plagued by bad luck and while most of the cycling world lamented Chris Froome’s and Alberto Contador’s crashes in the Tour de France and Joaquim Rodriguez’  crash in the Giro d’Italia, Vuelta director Javier Guillen may have had a hard time hiding his satisfaction. This year the Vuelta can probably field the strongest line-up of all the grand tours and even though the main contenders may not all have had the perfect preparation, all is set for a big showdown that includes most of the grand tour winners among the current professionals. CyclingQuotes.com takes a thorough look at this year's favourites and outsiders and finds out all about their strengths and weaknesses.

Most of the cycling world was left disappointed when Joaquim Rodriguez crashed out of the Giro, leaving the rest of the Italian grand tour to be an almost ceremonial ride for Nairo Quintana. The disappointment was even bigger when Chris Froome and Alberto Contador both abandoned the Tour de France, thus cancelling what had been described as the greatest duel for years.

Luckily the cycling calendar offers a great chance for revenge. The Vuelta a Espana is the perfect opportunity to salvage a disappointing season and this year several riders have lots at stake. With Chris Froome, Alberto Contador, Nairo Quintana, Ryder Hesjedal, Chris Horner and Cadel Evans all on the start line, most of the grand tour champions will line up at the race and if one adds the likes of Joaquim Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde, Daniel Martin, Fabio Aru, Andrew Talansky, Samuel Sanchez, Wilco Kelderman, Przemyslaw Niemiec, Rigoberto Uran and Robert Gesink, it is evident that the Vuelta can field one of the strongest line-ups in recent years.

Contador may not be in a condition that allows him to fight for the overall win but Froome, Quintana and Rodriguez have all made it clear that they line up in Spain with the clear goal of winning the race overall. Horner claims to be stronger than he was when he took a surprise win 12 months ago and Valverde has a formidable track record in the Vuelta where he hasn’t finished outside the top 5 since 2003. Talansky is ready to take revenge from a disappointing Tour and his teammate Martin is keen to make up for a poor Giro. Kelderman, Uran, Aru, Evans and Hesjedal have all recovered from their Giro exploits while Gesink will be keen to show that he is back to his best after his heart surgery.

CyclingQuotes.com has taken an in-depth look at the race's favourites, assigning 5 stars to the race's biggest favourite, 4 to his two biggest rivals, 3 to three other potential winners, 2 to four of the podium contenders and 1 to 5 of the race's minor outsiders. In this article, we take a look at the big 5-star favourite.

Chris Froome (*****)

A sports career is usually littered with lows and highs but rarely has an athlete gone through such a turnaround as Chris Froome has during the last few years. Having suffered from bilharzia for a long time, the Kenyan-born Brit went into the 2011 Vuelta a Espana with lots of uncertainty about his future career and didn’t know if he would be able to continue at the highest level. Less than two years later he had turned himself into the world’s best stage racer and last summer he took his first Tour de France victory. Being an outstanding time triallist and the greatest climber, the Brit masters all disciplines that usually decide a grand tour and has firmly taken over the position that Alberto Contador occupied a few years ago.

This year, however, things have been a lot more complicated for the Brit who seemed virtually unbeatable just 12 months ago. If things had gone according to plan, he would never have been on the start line in Jerez de la Frontera on Saturday as he was fully dedicated to his Tour de France title defence and had ruled out the possibility of riding two consecutive grand tours. As a culmination of a season that had been littered by setbacks he crashed out of the Tour and even though he quickly refocused on the Vuelta, he has been playing catch up, trying to get back into form for the Spanish grand tour.

In 2013 Froome went into La Grande Boucle as the big favourite but back then he arrived at the race on an incredible spring season that had made him the dominant stage racer of the first half of the year. With overall victories in the Tour of Oman, Criterium International, Tour de Romandie and Criterium du Dauphiné and a runner-up spot in Tirreno-Adriatico, Froome had done what his teammate Bradley Wiggins did one year earlier: setting himself up for a Tour de France victory by dominating the weeklong stage races.

By winning the French grand tour, the British duo continued the recent tradition that has seen the strongest stage racer in the spring step onto the podium in Paris. In the Lance Armstrong era, the best stage racers usually had a single eyed focus on the Tour and Armstrong never shone too much in the early part of the year. That trend was changed by Contador. In 2007, 2009 and 2010, the Spaniard won the Tour on the back of several stage race victories in the early part of the season and when Cadel Evans took the 2011 title he had already won Tirreno-Adriatico and Tour de Romandie earlier in the year.

Last year Froome kept that tradition alive but in sport, a year can make an enormous difference. This year he lined up in Leeds on the back of a spring season that had given more room for doubts and speculation than for celebration and victories. In fact it already started last autumn when Froome had made the world championships a big goal but a back injury forced him to pull out early in the race and he later had to cancel his participation in Il Lombardia and the Tour of Beijing.

This year he seemed to be back on track when he took a dominant victory in the Tour of Oman, crushing a very classy field on the short, steep Green Mountain, but from there things started to unravel. Going into his first big clash with Alberto Contador at Tirreno-Adriatico, the back problems flared up again and the Brit had to forfeit his participation. When he returned to competition in the Volta a Catalunya to take on Nairo Quintana, Joaquim Rodriguez and Contador in a hugely anticipated battle, it was clear that the health issues had been a major setback. Racing in his usual way, he tried to make his stinging attacks but his key rivals easily responded and when they countered, the Tour champion had no response. Froome ended the race in 6th, his poorest performance in a WorldTour stage race since he finished 123rd in the 2012 Tour de Romandie.

Froome’s woes continued later in the spring when a chest infection forced him out of Liege-Bastogne-Liege but he bounced back to claim a convincing victory in the Tour de Romandie. However, his performances were less dominant than usual. In the queen stage, he had the rare experience of getting caught by Simon Spilak after he had launched what was expected to be the decisive attack. He beat Tony Martin in the final time trial but only did so because of a mistake by the world champion on the final descent.

Another setback came at the Criterium du Dauphiné. Having stamped his authority on the race in the opening time trial and the first summit finish, Froome crashed in the final flat stage of the race and lost it all in the final weekend which had to consecutive summit finishes. Clearly suffering from his injuries, the Brit cracked completely in the dramatic final stage and even finished the race outside the top 10. The crash was a symbolic end to a build-up that has been anything but smooth for the reigning champion.

However, the hardest blow came at the Tour de France. Having come safely through the tricky stages in England and shown great condition in the Yorkshire Hills where he had briefly played with the muscles in stage 2, a swerve by Jens Keukeleire in the early part of stage 4 made him hit the ground. Even though x-rays couldn’t confirm any fractures in his wrist, he was unable to control his bike properly in the next stage which included several sections of Paris-Roubaix cobbles and so it was almost unavoidable that he hit the deck twice even before the riders had entered the pave sections. That put an end to his dreams of repeating his Tour de France victory and he was later diagnosed with small fractures to bones in his left wrist and right hand.

Froome quickly turned his attention to the Vuelta and he lines up at the Spanish grand tour with the goal of taking the overall win. This time, however, he lines up at a grand tour with a less than perfect preparation and no one really knows much about his condition when he takes the start of the opening team time trial. He hasn’t raced since he crashed out of the Tour and even though he was back on his bike relatively quickly, his injuries have made him unable to train in the best possible way.

However, history shows that Froome has an outstanding ability to build condition via training and he has often come out of a block of hard work with great form. This time he has been working hard at altitude in the United States and even though he may not be at 100% of his capabilities yet, his condition is so good that Sky have built the entire roster around their grand tour star. When the final team was selection, there was no room for sprinter Ben Swift and instead the team is loaded with climbers that can provide Froome with support in the many mountain stages.

Despite his setbacks, Froome goes into the race as the favourite. He may not have had many chances to put his skills on show but when he hasn’t been hampered by health problems he has shown glimpses of the class that makes him both the best climber in the world and the best time triallist among the GC riders. His performance in the Tour of Oman was dominant as he distanced most of the world’s best climbers on the relatively short Green Mountain, opening up massive time gaps in a very short space of time.

However, it was his showing in the Dauphiné that underlined his status as the world’s best stage racer even though he was up against a reinvigorated Albert Contador. Not only did Froome take a convincing victory in the opening time trial despite never having excelled in prologues, he was clearly the strongest when he was still at 100%. In the first mountain stage of the race, the Brit certainly didn’t ride conservatively, constantly responding to the attacks, but still had enough left in the tank to launch a searing acceleration in the finale. The final climb, Col du Beal, was pretty easy and drafting played an important role but Contador still had to go to his maximum just to stay on Froome’s wheel. In the end, he tried to pass his British rival but Froome had an extra gear and won the stage despite having been in the wind almost all the way up the climb. Contador later said that the attack was the most impressive he had ever seen.

That performance proved that Froome’s status as the best climber in the world hasn’t changed and if he can avoid crashes or illness, he could stamp his authority on the race already in the race’s first summit finish at the end of the first week. Due to his less than ideal preparation, however, there is a big chance that he will not be at 100% at the start of the race and he may be unable to make his usual stinging attacks in the early part of the race.

There is no doubt Froome will go on the attack in the mountains – his nature and riding style almost require him to do so. However, he finds himself in the very comfortable position that he doesn’t need to drop any of his key rivals. Froome is still clearly the strongest GC rider in the race against the clock. Despite the limited amount of time trialling, the Sky leader can make a massive difference in the long flat time trial at the midpoint and his main rival Nairo Quintana will have a hard time finishing within two minutes of Froome in that stage. The final stage offers him a chance to gain another few seconds over his rivals. With that ace up his sleeve, he can allow himself to ride conservatively, offering him a clear tactical advantage.

When Wiggins won the 2012 edition of the race, the importance of his strong Sky team could not be underestimated. Last year, however, the team delivered a below-par performance in the Tour de France where only Richie Porte and Peter Kennaugh lived up to expectations in the mountains and if Froome had not been superior, he could easily have lost the race.

Clearly, Sky brought their A team to the Tour de France, meaning that Sky won’t be lining up their strongest roster for this race. However, the British team is loaded with stage racing talent and Froome can expect to be formidably supported. With the likes of Dario Cataldo, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Peter Kennaugh, Vasil Kiryienka, Mikel Nieve and Philip Deignan on hand in the mountains, the team has the firepower to ride in the usual Sky way that requires the team to boast lots of climbing talent. The team is fully on par with Movistar and Froome only has one weakness when it comes to the team. He may lack the outstanding lieutenant that has usually been Richie Porte and if Nieve is not at 100%, he could find himself in an uncomfortable position against the Movistar pair of Quintana and Alejandra Valverde

While he seems to be unbeatable in the mountains and the time trials, Froome has three weaknesses. While his team has lots of climbing power, it’s not very strong on the flats. The Vuelta can be pretty windy and this year’s edition has lots of dangerous stages on the plains in the Northern part of the country and along the coast. Only Christian Knees and Luke Rowe have the needed classics experience and Froome could easily find himself isolated in that terrain. He will dearly miss Ian Stannard who didn’t reach a good enough condition in time for the Spanish grand tour after his horrific crash earlier this year.

The second main question is Froome’s form. While Quintana and Rodriguez have both had seamless build-ups for the race, Froome has been playing catch up. He may have been able to train but he is very unlikely to be at the level he had when he took the start In Leeds for the Tour de France a few weeks ago. Less may be enough to win the race but even his teammates have expressed doubt about his form going into the race.

In this regard, Froome has been given some help from the organizers. In recent years, they have had a summit finish very early in the race. This year the first two mountain stage come at the end of the first week and none of them are very hard. Furthermore, the opening team time trial is very short and will have virtually no impact on the final overall standings. Froome will have time to make up for his lack of racing and reach a better condition for the crucial mountain stages later in the race.

The final main question is Froome’s ability to recover. The Brit has only finished four grand tours as a GC contender and in two of them he has faded towards the end. It was less of a surprise in the 2012 Vuelta which he did on the back of a hard Tour-Olympics double but his drop in performance in last year’s Tour is harder to explain. While he was in a class of his own in the first two weeks, Nairo Quintana and Joaquim Rodriguez seemed to have the upper hand in the Alps and he only narrowly won a time trial where he should have crushed the opposition.

Our concerns may be unjust but Froome still has to fully convince us that he can keep his exceptionally high level for the duration of a grand tour and those concerns offer a glimmer of hope for his rivals. His less than ideal build-up may allow him to be a bit fresher towards the end but on paper, recovery is an obvious chink in his armour. If he is back in reasonable condition, however, his status as the world’s best climber and outstanding TT skills mean that only bad luck can prevent him from winning another grand tour. On the other hand, he has had a lot of that during the last few months and as everybody knows, bad things come in threes…